This summary guide provides an overview of what happens when child sexual abuse is a concern and a decision is made to go into pre-proceedings, and outlines situations when pre-proceedings are not in the child’s best interests. It also explains how the child may be feeling at this time, and how practitioners can best help the child and the parent/carer they are living with.
What happens during the PLO pre-proceedings stage?
The PLO pre-proceedings process represents a structured opportunity to work closely with a family by offering help and support to address risk and needs, with the aim of safely diverting children from becoming the subject of public law proceedings.
Where child sexual abuse is a concern, pre-proceedings can be an important step in which you can better understand the child’s circumstances or test a safety plan before deciding next steps.
The pre-proceedings process begins with the issue of a letter before proceedings, after which a pre-proceedings meeting is held with the parent(s), their legal representative and children’s social care. The parent(s) are then offered a period of change and assessment over 12–16 weeks, which may include:
- a package of support
- a holistic child and family assessment
- specialist assessment
- family group decision-making (FGDM) processes
- assessment of the viability of potential family and friend carers.
At the end of this period, there is a review and a decision about next steps.
How may the child be feeling?
When a child communicates – either verbally or through their behaviour – about sexual abuse within their family but remains at home, there may be continued or new impacts on the child. Going into pre-proceedings can prompt a range of emotions.
- The child may feel heightened anxiety, uncertainty, and stress throughout the involvement of children’s social care.
- Pre-proceedings can intensify the child’s conflicts of loyalty with their parents/carers, increasing any sense of responsibility the child has for those around them.
- The child may blame themselves for family issues and feel guilt and fear, sometimes retracting anything they have said about being abused. They may feel torn between family loyalty and personal safety.
- Home life may become tense or frightening under the scrutiny of the pre-proceedings process.
- The child may be hypervigilant, monitoring family members to avoid conflict or harm, and/or taking on adult roles and responsibilities.
- Loyalty to their parents and family can create internal conflict after they have reported abuse.
- The child may face consequences, including physical abuse, for sharing information.
- Children rarely distinguish between assessment and legal stages, experiencing them as a continuous stressful period.
- Anything the child has said about being abused may be fragmented and incomplete at the start of pre-proceedings.
- They may seek help through behaviour rather than words.
- As children are not included in pre-proceedings meetings, they may be left feeling confused, unheard or unseen.
- The pre-proceedings stage is marked by uncertain outcomes and major decisions about living arrangements. Prolonged pre-proceedings timelines increase this uncertainty and anxiety for the whole family.
- The child may be caught between risking family separation and enduring ongoing abuse.
- They may not fully understand safeguarding or legal processes.
Deciding whether pre-proceedings are appropriate when there are concerns of child sexual abuse
Pre-proceedings may be considered once a child protection plan has happened and there continues to be child protection risk for the child.
To decide whether to go into pre-proceedings, children’s social care hold a Legal Gateway Meeting, also known as a Legal Planning Meeting. The social worker gathers practitioners from different agencies to review the child’s situation and determine whether care proceedings are justified.
if the legal standard for care proceedings is met, because of child sexual abuse or other harms, children’s social care will decide whether it is appropriate to:
- continue on a child protection plan or
- begin the pre-proceedings (PLO) process or
- go straight into care proceedings.
Under Families First transformations, the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team will decide whether to move into pre-proceedings.
Children’s social care may decide to go into pre-proceedings because:
- they think there is a realistic chance of change, or
- they are testing whether the parent(s) can protect the child from the person of concern, or
- they want to better understand the family’s circumstances and refine identified assessments.
Not all cases that meet the legal standard will have a pre-proceedings stage. Some cases will go straight to court. The pre-proceedings stage is not appropriate if:
- the child is at immediate or imminent risk of significant harm and needs to be removed from the home without delay, or
- there is no safe way for the child to remain in the care of the parent(s) or within the family network while the pre-proceedings process unfolds.
How can you support the child and parent(s)/carer(s) they are living with?
If you are the child’s social worker, you have a responsibility to monitor risk and review any existing safety plan with the child and family during pre-proceedings.
- Consider how to involve other trusted adults in the family network.
- Take a rigorous, triangulated, evidence-informed approach to assessment and monitoring.
- Use the practitioner network – including schools, nurseries and others who have daily contact with the child – to support you in monitoring the child’s presentation and wellbeing alongside more obvious risk issues; rather than telling someone, children often show in their behaviour what is happening to them.
- Consider that, when a child has reported abuse but remains at home, the risk to them and others may increase.
- Work with the child and parent on reviewing the safety plan to reduce risk and build a shared picture of what safety looks like for each family member, setting clear expectations.
- Remember that supporting the parent who has been assessed as being ‘safe’ to care for the child, or as having the potential to be protective, is one of the best ways to protect the child from future harm.
Consider:
- the child's immediate and long-term care, support and therapeutic needs, including their readiness and willingness to engage with therapy
- the emotional and support needs of the carer the child is living with, including whether they need support to understand the child’s care and support needs during this period of uncertainty and beyond
- the immediate and long-term care and support needs of other children and vulnerable people in the home, bearing in mind that they too may have been sexually abused
- the care, support and therapeutic needs of any children in the home who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour.
If therapy is not appropriate at this time, consider any barriers that the child faces to accessing therapy, and reasons why there may be opposition to therapy from family or other practitioners. Remember, though, that the Crown Prosecution Service says children can receive emotional support and therapy during a police investigation.
Any therapeutic support given should have clear ground rules, and should be mindful of any open investigations and the potential to affect or influence any evidence the child may give in criminal law proceedings or family law proceedings.
Keeping children engaged and informed is a way of ensuring that their voice is heard and they are at the centre of their plan. Take the time to help the child understand:
- the purpose of the pre-proceedings stage, how it is different from what has happened before, and what might happen next
- who will be involved in pre-proceedings
- how the child will be involved (such as through safety planning)
- what they should do if they want to talk to you or tell you something – and if you are not available, who else they can talk to
- what assessments and support will be available, and what this means for them
- how their views will be shared with their parent(s) and other practitioners
- how their views may influence what happens
- what decisions might be made at the end of the pre-proceedings process
- how these decisions will be made
- how they will be informed about what happens during pre-proceedings and at the end – this is something to agree with them.
Always offer the child an opportunity to share any more information about what has happened and is happening to them.
Undertaking a robust child and family assessment during the pre-proceedings stage is a meaningful way for you to exercise your statutory powers to help protect and support the child. The assessment should:
- set out clearly the risks and vulnerabilities related to the child
- evaluate the risks, strengths and protective abilities of the parent(s) who are providing care to the child, and their capacity to co-develop a safety plan
- evaluate the ability of the parent(s) caring for the child to implement the safety plan
- evaluate the current and future risk related to the person of concern, including whether they can and will adhere to a safety plan and any other restrictions
- evaluate whether the person of concern is willing to work with services to address behaviours or unmet needs which may lead to harmful and abusive actions.
Be sure to gather information from multiple sources, including partner agencies such as police and probation that assess risk.
Possible outcomes of the pre-proceedings stage
There are four possible outcomes:
- The family is supported through a Family Help plan or a child protection plan (or, in Wales, a care and support plan), all of which are reviewed through regular meetings
- The case is closed because the concerns have been resolved.
- The parent or person with parental responsibility applies for private law proceedings.
- The local authority decides to issue care proceedings
External links
- Statutory guidance: Working together to safeguard children [Department for Education]
- Statutory guidance: Court orders and pre-proceedings [Department for Education]
- Pre-proceedings [Family Rights Group]
- Achieving best evidence in criminal proceedings [Ministry of Justice]
- Prosecution guidance: Pre-trial therapy [Crown Prosecution Service]
- Glossary of commonly used terms and words in family proceedings [Cafcass]
- Taking me seriously – video for children involved in the Family Court [Cafcass]
- Top tips for parents and practitioners [Cafcass]